"A photo of a plane crash or a con?" - Pressefotografforbundet

The conspiracy theories are going strong after 9/11. This is what an American amateur photographer has found out. She took a sensational picture of a plane crash.

By Jens Tønnesen

In the morning of 9/11 United Airlines Flight 93 crashed on a field near Val McClatchey's farm. She soon grabbed her digital camera and took a picture from her porch of the column of smoke.

She printed the out the picture and handed it over to the police and her farm was soon invaded by FBI agents. When the extent of 9/11 became clear, Val McClatchey’s picture became a sought after souvenir.

The picture has been used in national collections to the relatives of the victims, and has toured the country around on exhibitions. By the crash site, volunteers tells about the tragedy and show Val McClatchey’s picture in a laminated plastic version.

But it has also become an important evidence for the conspiracy theorists to show that the whole truth about the theorist attack has not come out. They have analyzed the wind direction, the spreading of wreckage and camera angles in an attempt to show that the plane crash was a con.

A group of bloggers, who call themselves “9-11 investigates”, have visited Val McClatchey and accused her of manipulating the picture and to put in fake smoke on the picture.

They have moreover picked her story from each other and pointed out discrepancy, all in an attempt to get the 50 year old real estate agent and amateur photographer to appear untrustworthy.

When you search her name on Google, it appears in the same sentences as “Total fraud”, which is probably not the best name for a real estate agent to have.

Note that this article makes it sound like I am accusing Val of faking her photo. That is not accurate. Her being involved in faking her photo is just one possible scenario. The other being her photo is authentic and it's a photo of an explosion originating from a different location from the alleged Flight 93 crash site.